Plants moved downhill, not up, in warming world

Date:

January 21, 2011

Source:

University of California - Davis

Summary:

Scientists now challenge a widely held assumption that plants will move uphill in response to warmer temperatures. Many forecasts say climate change will cause a number of plants and animals to migrate to new ranges or become extinct. That research has largely been based on the assumption that temperature is the dominant driver of species distributions. However, new research reveals that other factors, such as precipitation, may be more important than temperature in defining the habitable range of these species.

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West coast mountains. Researchers challenge a widely held assumption that plants will move uphill in response to warmer temperatures.

Credit: Copyright Michele Hogan

West coast mountains. Researchers challenge a widely held assumption that plants will move uphill in response to warmer temperatures.

Credit: Copyright Michele Hogan

In a paper published January 20 in the journal Science, a University of California, Davis, researcher and his co-authors challenge a widely held assumption that plants will move uphill in response to warmer temperatures.

Between 1930 and 2000, instead of colonizing higher elevations to maintain a constant temperature, many California plant species instead moved downhill an average of 260 feet, said Jonathan Greenberg, an assistant project scientist at the UC Davis Center for Spatial Technologies and Remote Sensing.

"While the climate warmed significantly in this period, there was also more precipitation. These wetter conditions are allowing plants to exist in warmer locations than they were previously capable of," Greenberg said.

Many forecasts say climate change will cause a number of plants and animals to migrate to new ranges or become extinct. That research has largely been based on the assumption that temperature is the dominant driver of species distributions. However, Greenberg said the new study reveals that other factors, such as precipitation, may be more important than temperature in defining the habitable range of these species.

The findings could have global relevance, because many locations north of 45 degrees latitude (which includes the northernmost United States, virtually all of Canada and Russia, and most of Europe) have had increased precipitation in the past century, and global climate models generally predict that trend will continue, the authors said.

"As we continue to improve our understanding of climate-change impacts on species, we will help land managers and policy makers to make more informed decisions on, for instance, conservation efforts for threatened and endangered species," Greenberg said.

He added that the study underlines the importance of an investment in basic science, as the results are based on historical data collected by the U.S. Forest Service in the 1930s, a program that was supported by New Deal spending after the Great Depression.

Funding was provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Forest Service.

University of California - Davis. "Plants moved downhill, not up, in warming world." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 21 January 2011. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110120142400.htm>.

University of California - Davis. (2011, January 21). Plants moved downhill, not up, in warming world. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 2, 2015 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110120142400.htm

University of California - Davis. "Plants moved downhill, not up, in warming world." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110120142400.htm (accessed August 2, 2015).

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